AfriGeneas States Research Forum

According to his 1871 Freedman's Bank record, Peter Hazel Jr. (Peter F. Hazel, born c. 1850 in Charleston, SC) worked as a waiter at "Scriven House." I wondered if this referred to a restaurant or hotel, or possibly the home of Savannah's mayor (1869-73) John B. Screven, a son of a former Savannah mayor (1856-57) James P. Screven.

I found a reference to a hotel and/or restaurant, Dub's Screven House, with a clientele that included U.S. presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Grover Cleveland. The proprietor could be Bernard/Bernhard Dub, born in Bohemia or Austria. Dub possibly operated hotels and restaurants in both Savannah and Augusta, GA.

In 1880, when hotel keeper Bernhard Dub lived in Augusta, GA, Peter F. Hazel worked as a hotel waiter in Savannah. In the late 1880s Peter F. Hazel's occupation changed from waiter to carpet layer. In 1910 Bernhard Dub lived in Savannah. By then Peter F. Hazel, SC-born carpet layer, had left Savannah for Manhattan with his wife Emma and several other family members.

Peter F. Hazel is a son of Charleston, SC house painter Peter Hazel Sr. (c. 1810-1877). Siblings or half siblings of Peter F. Hazel include hotel waiter James J. Hazel (who also served as secretary of United Waiters Association), seamstress/dressmaker Lavinia Hazel Ringgold, and Mary Elizabeth Hazel Walker in Charleston, SC; house painter Charles A. Hazel in Savannah, GA. This Hazel/Hazell family may be related to the family of brick mason Albert Aspinall/Aspinwall (wife Harriet) who had moved from Charleston, SC to Manhattan, NY by 1900.